Paul McCartney Called Quincy Jones a ‘Crazy Motherf—er’ for Insulting the Beatles

Back in February, Quincy Jones made headlines when he criticized the Beatles, calling them "no-playing motherfuckers." He also singled out Paul McCartney as "the worst bass player I ever heard."

McCartney has now revealed details of the conversation he had with Jones after the legendary producer called to apologize. "I love this guy," he told GQ.

"He's totally out of his tree. But the great thing was, he rang me after this. I'd only heard about it and I'd thought, 'I'm not sure it's true.' The joke is, I love Quincy, even after this. He's a crazy motherfucker. But I respect him, he's done a lot of very good things. So he rang me, and I'm at home on my own. And I'd finished work, so I had a drink and now I'm grooving at home, I'm cooking, I've got a little bit of wine going, I'm in a good mood, and I don't give a shit."

McCartney recalled the conversation: "'Is this Mr. McCartney?' 'Yes.' 'Quincy would like to speak with you.' Because he's always worked through security guys. I said, 'Hey, Quince!' 'Paul, how you doing, man?' 'I'm doing great — how are you, you motherfucker!' I'm just jiving with him. 'Paul, I didn't really say that thing — I don't know what happened, man. I never said that. You know I love you guys!' I said, 'If you had said that, you know what I would have said? Fuck you, Quincy Jones!' And he laughed. I said, 'You know I would say to that: Fuck you, Quincy Jones, you fucking crazy motherfucker!' So actually we just had a laugh."

In addition to calling McCartney directly, Jones, at the behest of his daughters, issued a public apology a few days later. Even though it's water under the bridge between the pair now, McCartney still isn't fully sure why Jones said what he did.

"He was like, 'Oh, Paul, you know I love you so much.' 'Yeah, I know you do, Quince.' But he's an old guy," McCartney said. "I don't know what it was. But I don't think I'm the worst bass player he's ever heard. Or maybe he's never heard bad bass players. He's talking all of this jazz and musicianship, and he's an arranger and stuff. This is like Buddy Rich saying Ringo couldn't drum. Because coming from Buddy Rich's sensibility, Ringo can't drum. But coming from our sensibility, Buddy Rich is a load of shit. But God bless him."